Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th

2013 "The ultimate tribute to one of horror's most iconic and enduring franchises"
8.5| 6h40m| NR| en
Details

Taking inspiration from Peter M. Bracke's definitive book of the same name, this seven-hour documentary dives into the making of all twelve Friday the 13th films, with all-new interviews from the cast and the crew.

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

Stream on any device, 7-day free trial Watch Now

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!
Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
MaximumMadness From the same creative team who crafted the deliciously entertaining and incredibly engaging "Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy", "Crystal Lake Memories" is a thorough and fairly absorbing documentary that covers the entirety of the famous (and infamous) horror film franchise "Friday the 13th." Loaded with hundreds of interviews, seemingly thousands of clips and behind-the-scenes photos and a metric ton of information and informative tid-bits of trivia, this is definitely a must-see for all fans of the hockey-masked maniac Jason Voorhees.From series creator Sean Cunningham to the plethora of men behind the mask including fan-favorite Kane Hodder, there are dozens upon dozens of interview subjects who spin yarns and fondly recall the creation of every single film in the franchise. All the while, Corey Feldman narrates with glee and we're treated to all sorts of fascinating making-of images and video. Want to know exactly how that infamous "Ki-Ki-Ki, Ma-Ma-Ma" sound effect was created? Wanna know what the incidental actors thought of one another? Want to know how hard it was to film "Part III" in state-of-the-art 3D? It's all here, along with countless other factoids.Unfortunately, all of this comes with a pretty severe trade-off. That being that the film has a punishingly bloated run-time of nearly seven hours. Yup, you read that right! Seven. Hours. Part of what made the prior film about the "Nightmare on Elm Street" franchise work was that it knew when to get in and when to get out. And even then, it was still pushing it with a four-hour runtime. But the facts presented felt relevant and fascinating, the structure was sound and the pacing was fairly brisk. I can't necessarily say the same about "Crystal Lake Memories." This one just pushes it too far. Sure, you could argue that with nearly twice the films to cover, it needed to be nearly twice the length. But given how repetitive the interviews become over time, and how the same basic ideas are revisited over and over... it's easy to see that at least a full hour could have been cut out. Maybe even two. And the pacing is way too slow for its own good. There's so much more droning on in this movie... it can occasionally become hard to stay invested.Still, that can't detract from the fact that on the whole... yeah, "Crystal Lake Memories" is a really fun experience. It's informative, mostly engaging and you'll learn quite a bit by the time the credits roll. Just don't plan to watch it all in one sitting! I'm giving it a pretty good 7 out of 10.
Platypuschow I wasn't blown away by the Friday 13th franchise, I think they were ground breaking and positively genre defining but none of them exactly blew me away.I recently watched the Friday 13th documentary His Name Was Jason (2009) and wasn't exactly impressed with what I saw.How can a person like myself who found the franchise lackluster enjoy a documentary about the material? Well, I did. This documentary is so in depth, so thorough that I was positively fascinated. Giving around 30 minutes of stories, background and factoids about each movie the documentary stands at over 5 and a half hours so isn't swift viewing.With countless interviews from the creators and cast to unseen footage and deleted scenes this is one of the most competently made fan service documentaries I've ever seen and is a must watch for any fans or even just horror addicts like myself.Want to know why some of the movies were so cut? Interested to find out why Kane Hodder didn't play Jason in Freddy Vs Jason? Eager to discover which movies succeeded and which bombed? This documentary covers these questions and so much more.Brilliant viewing and that's coming from someone who as mentioned doesn't consider the franchise as critically acclaimed as most others.The Good: Corey Feldmans opening and closer Essential viewing for fans of the series Extremely in depth The Bad: Uses the same interview segments as His Name Was Jason (2009) Some key figures weren't interviewed Things I Learnt From This Documentary: You can make a good documentary about anything if you just handle it right Across all 12 movies and a total of 120 potential points on IMDb they only garnered 63 from me
amesmonde Director Daniel Farrands surpasses His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th, with Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th. This like the 2010 film, Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy and Farrands offers again an in depth and comprehensive documentary.It discusses each of the twelve films, from the original to the 2009 remake, as well as the television series. It's also narrated and book-ended by Corey Feldman (who is also interviewed). It features candid interviews with key individuals in the franchise's history and the expected clips and glimpses of deleted and alternative scenes. It also looks at their post release reception and impacts. If you've done a lot of reading on the making of the Friday the 13th this will offer few surprises and at nearly 7 hours long it may be too much for the casual documentary viewer. But for Friday the 13th completists, horror film enthusiast and fans of the series this is a must see.
theromanempire-1 I just saw the whole thing last night and here are my thoughts.This is a must have F13 DOC for all the die hard fans.2 DVD's and 2 blu rays in which we get the whole story of the franchise splited in 14 chapters running from 20 to 40 minutes each chapter.As u can imagine we begin with part 1 (long night at camp blood) and we end with the remake film.in more detailDVD 1 and BLU RAY 1 have 7 chapters full of cast interviews and thoughts of the movies plus a lot of scenes from the movies some of them presented in their deleted // extended form.1) LONG NIGHT AT CAMP BLOOD2) PART 23) PART 34) FINAL CHAPTER5) A NEW BEGINNING6) JASON LIVES7) F13 THE TV SERIESDVD 2 and BLU RAY 2 have the rest chapters from part 7 to part 12 plus a bonus chapter containing more interviews from the cast members....IN more detail8) THE NEW BLOOD9) JASON TAKES MANHATTAN 10) JASON GOES TO HELL 11) JASON X 12) FREDDY vs JASON 13) THE REMAKE 14) REFLECTIONS ON WATERAlso we have an intro narrative by corey feldman who also appears at the very end of the project closing in a great way that project.As i said this effort is great but not complete.Unfortunately the alice cooper's videos from part 6 are absent from one more official F13 DVD release and what is strange is that we also don't get the 12 F13 trailer park which they should have been included in this specific release (although they are separate available).Apart from that this is a must have for all die hard f13 fans as we all get to see for the first time all 9 actors (and their stundmen) who played JASON all over the years plus we get to see most of the cast from the movies including scenes of those who could not make it to appear alive in this DOC.good work guys and now it's time for a HELLRAISER and a CHILD'S PLAY complete doc after those we had of JASON, FREDDY and MYERS.